This wasn't the book I was expecting. I thought I was going to read more of a how-to. As I began to realize it was a memoir, I  was alright with it, at first. However, as I continued, I found the subject matter drifting further and further away from the intial premise that was promised in the book blurb.

Flanders' 'Year of Less" is more than buying less things. It's also, mainly, about avoiding unhealthy, addicting behaviours that encompass more than just the shopping ban. She writes about avoiding alcohol, avoiding animal products/eating vegan, avoiding unhealthy coping methods when under duress. Very little of the memoir was about her shopping ban and items and much more about her personal struggles with her vices (vices that seemed particularly serious in her case).

I think a book like this (as adversied by the book blurb) attracts two kinds of people. People who are already living a relatively minimalist/anti-consumerist lifestyle and want to improve and people who are actively struggling with unhealthy consumerism/compulsivy buying and seeking a way to break the addiction. I just happen to fall in the first catagory of people, so this book just wasn't that relatable or helpful.